December 2003 Newsletter

Editorial

This being our last newsletter for the year 2003.  Let me start by wishing all of our clients a Happy Holiday and a prosperous New Year.

A spate of recent good news is buoying the stock market and starting to open the door for corporate travel, both Incentives and Meetings.  The recent announcement of record profits and falling unemployment all bode well for the country. All the indices are heading back to their pre 9/11 levels and the man in the street is starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel as far as personal savings and pension schemes go.  Spending over the pre-holiday season looks to be going ahead well and the number of expensive purchases being made must indicate that people are ready to dig into their pockets for whatever they need. 

Here at WWTCA, we are seeing business getting into gear again, some flurries from companies that still have not spent their annual budget and need to do so before the years end, and other interest from those that are looking ahead and pricing out their 2004 programs.  We hope our clients are also seeing this good news being translated into positive cash flow for the coming year.

State of the Industry:

• The cruise industry has released the demographics of their client base, and while this is based on individual travelers and not corporate groups, it does highlight  some interesting facts and ideas that our sector of the travel market might want to pursue.

• The trend today is towards more active vacations.  This might seem odd at first in view of the fact that a cruise ship is not considered to be an "active" vacation.  But we lose sight of the enormous amount of on-board activities a modern cruise ship has.   From rock climbing, ice-skating and a planetarium on the larger ships to cooking classes, yoga or just working on your golf swing.. there is really an activity or two for everyone.  Once the ship hits port, passengers are treated to a plethora of activities, which range from just plain sight seeing to scuba diving, water skiing, sail boat racing and so on - the list is almost endless.

• Interestingly enough, over a million children took a cruise in 2002.  With cruise rates starting at a value level of around $100 per day - more middle class families find they can afford a cruise vacation, especially as just about everything is included in the cruise price.  More extended family vacations are also taking place.  With the great choice of activities and restaurant choices, it is not unusual to find a family of several generations cruising together.

• Theme cruises are also high on peoples list.  Musical cruises, from classical to Rhythm and Blues are very popular, or how about a week long "honeymoon cruise" for 1200 women that departs Boston and is organized by a company specializing in travel for women.  Other cruisers prefer cultural cruises. River Cloud II for example has an amazing cruise through the Poe Valley in Italy, which encompasses a whole Italian civilization almost or, you can cruise the Yangtze River or just putze along the beautiful canals of France and sample incredible wines, cheeses and cuisine with a small group of old friends.  Truly there is cruise for everyone and every taste.

• People often ask us..."how can the cruise industry keep filling all those new ships?  They number of additional beds is growing at a frightening rate".   Well the answer lies in this set of figures - Despite all the bad news we all lived through in 2001/2003 the number of passengers who chose to cruise each year keeps going up, with another record breaking 8.3 million North Americans expected to cruise in 2003.   Of course this pales next to the 40 million people who go to Orlando each year.  In fact only 15 percent of American's have ever been on a cruise according to CLIA.  Yet this is seen to be GOOD news - there is plenty of room to grow, and adding to that, the number of clients who become repeat cruisers also continues to grow.

•  JW Edwards has released the results from a recent monthly survey showing a continuing trend of improvement in both cruise bookings and pricing.  Industry watchdogs also saw an increase in bookings for the Thanksgiving and Christmas periods and bookings are on pace to deliver a 10% increase from the same period a year ago. Pricing improvements are also occurring, in both the fourth quarter and in early 2004 according to the surveys results. The Caribbean, especially is reaping pricing increase benefits.

• Holland America CEO Kirk Lanterman on Wave Season: "I see booking momentum going into Wave, but it's hard to judge what that means. As booking to sail period has continually decreased, that tells you maybe the Wave isn't going to be as great--that we're going to have more steady bookings year-round. However, at the moment, we're booking more than twice last year at the same time with a 12% capacity increase.

Ship Profile - NCL's Norwegian Dawn

• WWTCA just completed a cruise with a select group of clients on the Norwegian Dawn.  It was almost one year to the day since we sailed on her inaugural voyage.  Read Jim Castle's ship report "A Year On" to check out how this unique ship, the first custom built ship constructed for "Free Style Cruising" has fared.

Cruising Opportunities.

• Clients who have a genuine interest in promoting cruises to their clients and who feel they are not "up-to speed on cruising" should look out for cruising opportunities from WWTCA both in our news letters and in other emails sent to them.  Because of the high demand and limited space, it is important to respond quickly to any of these offers.

Ships review this month.

• WWTCA has also had the opportunity to inspect two other ships this month.  Holland America's newest ship, the Oosterdam and Oceania Cruises'' ship the Regatta.  Both of these ship reviews are available on our website.  - click here for ship reviews.

Shipping News  

• New Visa Requirements Effective January 5, 2004 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin a new high-tech registration system on January 5, 2004 to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors, who are required to have visas, as they enter through designated U.S airports and seaports.   The program will exempt permanent U.S. residents and foreign visitors from 21 countries who do not generally need visas to enter the U.S.  

• Those exempted countries include Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. When booking customers from countries not included in the above list, make sure they know that besides holding a visa, they will now have their digital photographs and electronic fingerprints taken or verified upon entering or exiting the U.S.  

• The seaports that have been initially selected by the DHS for the January 5 implementation date are:

• According to the DHS, the new system uses scanning equipment to collect digital photographs and electronic fingerprints from foreign visitors as they are processed through immigration services.   Collection of the photographs and fingerprints are part of the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (U.S. VISIT), an entry-exit registration program created to keep better track of foreign visitors coming into the U.S.

• Smoke Free No Longer- When Carnival moves the Paradise from Miami to Long Beach in September 2004 as part of a ship reshuffling (they will also place the Ecstasy in Galveston), they will also end one of the industry's most publicized experiments: a totally smoke-free vessel.  On the one hand reports state that the ship attracted unusually loyal customers, but it is difficult to put groups on the nonsmoking ship as in every group there is always at least one smoker.

Port News

• Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands.   Things will be even more lively, than before in the port and downtown areas on St. Thomas come December 16th. A new weekly themed event named, "Downtown Destination Nite" has been announced to help boost business and revitalize the area of Charlotte Amalie, for both tourists and residents. The event will include live music and street entertainers featuring popular music from the region and cultural entertainment. Most of the local bars, shops and restaurants in the locale will remain open later in the evening on Tuesday nights- when the cruise ships stay late in port- throughout the winter cruising season, to hopefully capture additional business, as a result of the festivities. Local hoteliers, businesses and taxi/transportation operators are helping spread the word, by passing out flyers, featuring a smiling half-moon encircled in gold which is the new logo, supporting the event. Street banners, featuring the half-moon symbol will be hanging above the downtown streets, and the local transportation providers will be offering special reduced fares to/from the downtown area in support of the event, for passengers and hotel guests. In addition, additional security will be provided by the local police to ensure participants safety

• English Channel Ports. Seven ports located along the stretches of the English Channel, which together form the marketing association called Channel Cruise Group, have been joined by two new members, Shoreham-by-Sea and Paimpol. The French port of Paimpol will begin welcoming  cruise ships for the first time next year with at least three calls currently scheduled and whilst Shoreham-on-Sea has no calls planned as yet, they are working on it.

• Mobile gains first year-round cruise ship. Carnival Cruise Lines will launch the first year-round cruise program from the Port of Mobile in Alabama when the 1,452-passenger Holiday begins four- and five-day Western Caribbean cruises in October. On this new program, the 46,052gt Holiday, which operated a series of voyages from Mobile in Spring 2002, will sail on four-day cruises to Cozumel and five-day cruises to Cozumel and Calica/Playa del Carmen or Costa Maya beginning Oct. 16. 'When we inaugurated Fun Ship cruising from Mobile aboard the Holiday in 2002, the response was simply overwhelming,' says Carnival president and CEO Bob Dickinson. 'We anticipate the same level of success when the Holiday returns to Mobile to operate the port's first year-round cruise program.' The Holiday was originally scheduled to sail from Jacksonville, Florida; instead, the newly renovated Celebration will assume that deployment. Including the Holiday's new schedule from Mobile, Carnival will operate from 19 North American homeports, the most in the industry.

• Marseilles expects 400,000 passengers in 2004. With 340,000 passengers in 2003 (a 32% increase on 2002) provided by 29 cruise companies, 48 different cruise ships and 300 calls, Marseilles has had an exceptional year. 2004 looks even more promising with 400,000 passengers and 335 calls already expected, though the planning is not yet final. Among 'newcomers' next year.

Holiday Festivities - WWTCA recently celebrated the Holiday Season with our supplier partners.  Click here to see the evidence!

For more information contact:

·         Jim Castle (954) 452 8800. ext.25 - email Jim

·         Steve Bloss (954) 452-8800, ext. 26 - email Steve

·         Jim Huff (954) 452-8800, ext. 28 - email Jim

·         Leon Banossian (954) 452-8800, ext. 29 - email Leon

·         Martin Dock +44 (0)1794 514336 - email Martin

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